Wednesday, August 28, 2013

BMC undecided about cell tower rules

MUMBAI: Though BMC officials are clueless about the changes they will have to make in their policy to regulate cellphone
towers in the city, they said they would incorporate the new guidelines
issued by the department of telecom in their recommendations. The DoT
has come up with its guidelines for state governments and local bodies
while dealing with cell towers. The guidelines came into effect from
August 1.
"We will table the draft cell tower policy in
the general body meeting soon. We have learnt that there will be
modifications to the guidelines issued by DoT. We have not received any
intimation so far, but if it is so, we will make the necessary changes
in the draft policy," said Rajeev Kukunur, BMC chief engineer,
development plan.
Meanwhile, Indians For Safe Environments (IFSE) and other citizen
groups in the city have objected to the "advisory" nature of these
guidelines. "These guidelines are advisory in nature and not mandatory
for states or local bodies. Hence, it is necessary for the DoT to ask
states to frame rules based on the new guidelines," a statement by IFSE
and other citizens' groups said.
According to them, citizens were
not happy that the Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM)
cell will have to intervene in case residents of a building want a cell
tower removed for violation of guidelines. They want this power to be
vested with the local bodies. IFSE said a specific time limit should be
fixed for operators to submit self-certificate regarding towers. They
also want the government to adopt the lowest Austrian limit for
radiations.
IFSE has demanded that the combined power output from
antennae be reduced to a maximum of 2 Watts per site. Citizens also
want that the number of antennae per site be restricted to two.